Answers (31)

I tutored a little girl who was having problems with math, and as it turned out, she did not know her multiplication tables, so it made it really hard for her.
I asked her about the things she found fun and interesting, and tried to use her interests in helping her to memorize the times tables. She liked music, so I had her make up a song about 8, including the multiplication of 8. She was able to memorize it pretty quickly from there.
There's the "magic of 9", where all of the answers will always add up to 9. Example: 9 x 8 = 72 7 + 2 = 9
I have also included a couple of websites that have multiplication games, if you allow your child to use the computer at home.
Most of all, be creative and try to have fun with numbers. I really struggled with math when I was about your child's age, and it wasn't until I found a teacher that helped me see that numbers and math could be fun, that I really excelled!
Best wishes! Have fun!

I have a website for you that suits your needs very well. it provides free maths worksheets for kids of various age groups, to teach the kids multiplications, substraction, addition,division etc with the help of printable worksheets. you can print the worksheet and give it to your child. I am sure it will definately help you. The page link is given below:

Yeah, first you need to teach the multiplication tables to your child. After that, start to give small problems to solve. Each day keep at least 1 hour for math. Definitely, you can teach them well. :)

Learning the times tables can be frustrating for both you and your child, but it is well worth the effort. I know many a student who is having trouble in junior high and high school because they have not yet memorized their multiplication tables.

There are a couple of important things to remember.

1) Try to avoid frustration. If you or your child becomes frustrated it will effect their ability to learn. Remember a child can tell if you are frustrated.

2) Some students do well with flash cards, repetition (practice sheets or timed tests), or my least favorite "chanting" (repeated the tables in order 3,6,9,12,15,18. I don't like this because they have to go through 6 facts to get to 3x7)

3) If one approach isn't working for your child try to find different ways to present the material. Each of us has a learning style preference.
Think about the different ways we get directions to someplace. (Draw me a map, tell me in words like turn right at this street, or give me landmarks like turn right at the gas station.) If your child a visual learner or kinesthetic learner, using the methods in number 2 above will probably not be successful.

Links below for Multiplication Education which uses multiple intelligences to teach the times tables, and an article that explains more about a child's learning style

I made an iPad app (called "Alfi loves maths") to help both my daughters with their arithmetics. It is a simple game where you practice the table of your choosing, with either addition or multiplication. The kind of practicing we can do with the game is a great complement to the tips given in this post. I hope the time I spent making this app will be of use to more kids than just the two of mine!

We have found that kids learn multiplication best when having fun. We created a fun multiplication card game to do just that. The game is called Math Grab and is designed to help kids learn multiplication forward and backwards which is key to memorization.

UPDATE: I originally gave this four stars (see my original review below). My kids and I test-played it for less than an hour yesterday, before I posted the review. Today, when I turned it back on, it simply wasn't working. I thought maybe it was the batteries. Put in three fresh AA batteries but same problem, the toy was not turning on. This is just terrible. We didn't even go rough on it -- no, we didn't slam on the buttons even though this is called Multiplication Slam and the bubble-shaped buttons appear to be made to be banged on.

I received this for review from Amazon Vine so no real loss for me other than time spent testing it and writing the original review. I don't know if my experience reflects general quality problem. It was fun while it lasted... for under an hour total playtime!

ORIGINAL REVIEW FROM YESTERDAY:

The Multiplication Slam is a fun electronic game that helps kids memorize multiplications up to 9x9. It has ten colorful bubbles that house LEDs which can display numbers up to 2 digits, and a center non-backlit LCD for showing simple questions. The bubbles can be slammed when you answer the questions.

There're five games, from easiest to hardest for the same level of learning:

1. Skip it: for practicing multiples of 2 - 9.

2. Fast facts: you pick a number 1 - 9 and do multiplications with that number as a factor and another number as the other factor. So for example if you pick 3, you'll be given questions like 3x7, 3x2, 3x0, etc.

3. Factor frenzy: you pick a number 1 - 9 and in the LCD window you're given a multiplication that has your chosen number as a factor as well as the product, you now answer the other factor. For example if you pick 7, you'll be asked 7x?=49.
4. Factor pairs: here you're shown a number in the LCD and in the top green LED bubble, and you're given 4 numbers in the bottom 4 bubbles. Two of those numbers will make a pair that multiply into the top number. You have to slam those two numbers.

5. Sequence: you pick one of three difficulty levels and fill in the missing number in a five-number sequence. You're not told what the multiple is. For example I picked level 3 and was shown this sequence: 21, --, 35, 42, 49. Two choices were shown inside the bottom two LED bubbles, 28 and 30. I needed to slam the correct bubble.

My grade school kids like the games a lot, even though to me they're repetitive. I'm not very good with math so I play it, too. It's amazing you can get so many questions out of 9 by 9 numbers, plus 0 in the middle 3 games.

While the games are educational, the toys suffers from some minor design flaws. First of all, they could have spent like a penny and put in a little backlight for the LCD in the center. Because it's deeply recessed, you need a lot of ambient light to see the LCD numbers. Second, the volume is loud and cannot be adjusted. Third, on the unit I received, the single screw that holds the battery compartment cover closed was extremely difficult to loosen. It almost wanted to make me rate this 1 star. They should have just made it a screw-less latch door.

The minor complaints aside, this is a fun game for kids learning multiplications - and adults who need to relearn!
Cute handheld game that helps children practice multiplication facts. It's a bit smaller than expected, but is a good tool for any child for practicing facts up to 9X9. It doesn't seem really durable and you must really apply pressure to the buttons. There are options for several options for game play but the speaker quality is sub par. For the price, I'm not sure this will hold up to the abuse of finger smashes or is worth the hassle for the bad sound.